Yesterday I wrote about concerns over the horn-like instruments being blown (loudly) at World Cup games. Today the Health Blog's Katherine Hobson reports that eardrum-shattering noises aren't confined to soccer stadiums:
*The crowd noise at Qwest Field in Seattle, home to the NFL’s Seahawks, has been called the loudest in the NFL by opposing players, with the New York Giants once receiving 11 false start penalties in a single game because of the noise level. Fox Sports said the decibel level hit 137 during the 2006 NFC championship.
*Nascar races also appear to beat the vuvuzela, with one study showing levels of as high as 140 decibels, according to a NYT story.
As a reminder, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, just one minute of exposure to sounds over 100 decibels can put a person at risk of permanent hearing loss. Suddenly, the couch seems like a pretty great place to watch football!
Previously: Popular vuvuzela poses health risk to World Cup fans
Photo by rhett maxwell
